Disturbing Charges Against a JonBenet Photographer

The charges themselves are disturbing enough, but the connection to JonBenet Ramsey makes them all the worse. A 66-year-old Oregon photographer known for taking images of JonBenet in the months before her 1996 murder has been arrested on child pornography charges, reports KEPR. Police in Springfield say Randall Simons downloaded images using the WiFi of an A&W restaurant near his home, per the Register-Guard. The arrest is getting attention because Simons famously was hired by the Ramsey family in June 1996 to take photos of the 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant. She was killed in December.

After her death, Simons came under fire for selling a portfolio of "glamour" JonBenet images. "I'll probably never work again," he said at the time, according to an AP story. The Register-Guard notes that Simons was arrested in 1998 and accused of walking nude down a street in the town of Genoa, Colo. He allegedly said to the arresting deputy, unprovoked, "I didn't kill JonBenet." (The brother of JonBenet sued CBS after a damning investigation of the still-unsolved murder.)